The heralding of ambitions and hardening of geopolitical and military stances by China has given rise to few questions: Did China challenge the United States too hard and too soon and, by doing so, seriously jeopardize its chances of achieving its objectives? Can Washington still contain China's ascendancy and retain its current leading status?
This book attempts to explore these questions and analyse if China has tried to display its strength to America too soon. It argues that by comparing the comprehensive national power of the two countries, one may be able to answer the above questions.
List of author features on the book:
Click here for an Author Interview with the Global Labor Organization.
Sample Chapter(s)
Foreword
Chapter Seven: THE MILITARY APTITUDE
Contents:
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Foreword
- Introduction
- The Good Years
- The Unraveling
- Sailing Against the Wind
- The Convergence Aptitude
- The Mistakes Avoidance Aptitude
- The Universality Aptitude
- The Military Aptitude
- The Economic Aptitude
- The Technological Aptitude
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Readership: General public; scholars, graduate and undergraduate students studying international business, political science, international relations, American Studies, and China Studies.
"Weaving together into a seamless narrative the many strands of past and present changes, this is soft-power writing that reveals the hard-power implications that lie in wait. Toro Hardy has produced a detailed, accessible and insightful text to understand the coming fury."
Roxane Farmanfarmaian
Director of Global Policies and International Studies, and
Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge
"The rivalry between China and America is the big question of the 21st century. It shapes our economies, our technology, our security and determine whether we can tackle the climate emergency. Alfredo Toro Hardy's gripping book uses decades of diplomatic experience to forensically examine every aspect of this critical relationship and lays out scenarios for the future. A must-read for anyone interested in understanding the future of geopolitics."
Mark Leonard
Author of What Does China Think?, and
Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations
"The US-China rivalry requires a scholar-diplomat that is neither American nor Chinese to give it fair treatment. That is what Alfredo Toro Hardy delivers in this landmark volume. Covering the history of their intertwined relations, the personalities shaping their worldviews, and the episodes defining their rising tension, China Versus the US deftly asks the big questions that will shape the future of geopolitics. A sweeping and bold narrative."
Parag Khanna
Author of The Future is Asian, and
One of Esquire's "75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century"
"In this lucid and insightful book, which is a compelling reading, Alfredo Toro Hardy has done a great service. The power dynamics driving China and the United States, as well as the different outcomes that might result from it, are very clearly explained. Toro Hardy shows both how competition between these two superpowers has become inevitable and also why it need not end in military conflict."
Victor Bulmer-Thomas
Author of Empire in Retreat: The Past, Present and Future of the United States, and
Former Director of Chatham House
"By drawing from his life-long experience as a diplomat, GLO Fellow Alfredo Toro Hardy provides an insightful analysis of open questions and mysteries in his new book China versus the US: Who Will Prevail?."
Global Labor Organization (GLO)
"The struggle between the US and China for global hegemony is likely to be the defining characteristic of the next several decades. By bringing forth the historical and civilizational roots of this conflict and showing the different trajectories it could assume Ambassador Alfredo Toro Hardy offers a very insightful and easy to read book which all interested in global politics will find illuminating!"
T V Paul
Author of Restraining Great Powers: Soft Balancing from Empires to the Global Era, and
James McGill Professor of International Relations, McGill University
"Alfredo Toro Hardy argues that the current confrontation between the two behemoth forces us to ask ourselves whether China challenged the US too hard and too soon, but also whether Washington can still contain China's ascendancy. This book offers a methodological approach to answer these questions, by carefully analysing each country's strengths."
Nicolas Michelon
Chief Editor of Asia Power Watch
"The book is structured around nine chapters, one more captivating than the other … As a representative of a developing country, perhaps the author is more demanding vis-à-vis the United States and more lenient toward China, but on the whole the book is generally unbiased, well structured and argued. After reading the complex and stimulating analyses included in this book, the reader might correlate the title question China versus the US: Who Will Prevail? with another relevant interrogation: Which system will prevail?" [Read Full Review]
Geostrategic Pulse
Alfredo Toro Hardy, has a PhD from the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations and master degrees from the universities of Pennsylvania and the Central University of Venezuela, among other degrees.
Before resigning from the Venezuelan Foreign Service, he was one of his county's most senior career diplomats, having served as an Ambassador to the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Brazil, Singapore, Chile and Ireland.
He was Director of the Diplomatic Academy of the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as an Associate Professor of the Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, where he also served as Director of the Center for North American Studies and Co-ordinator of the Institute for Higher Latin American Studies. He was elected as the "Simon Bolivar Chair Professor" by the Council of Faculties of the University of Cambridge. A Visiting Professor at Princeton University, he also taught at the universities of Brasilia and Barcelona, while lecturing extensively at universities and think tanks in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. He has been a member of the Advising Committee of the Diplomatic Academy of London, a Fulbright Scholar and a two-time Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Resident Scholar, Board member of the Iberian American Network of Sinologists and Fellow of the Global Labor Organization.
He has authored twenty books and co-authored thirteen more on international affairs and history. A two-time recipient of the "Latino Book Award" at the ExpoBook America fair, his three previous books were also published by World Scientific.
